THE GOSPEL
~ GOD’S HAS DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE FOR ALL PEOPLE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.
• God loves everyone and He sent his only, unique Son, Jesus Christ, here to show us that. God wants everyone to experience life the way He intended.
For this is the way God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
~ BUT SIN CUTS US OFF FROM BEIGNNING A LIFE WITH GOD.
• Even though God loves us, we need to realize that we are all spiritually disconnected from God because of something called sin. We’re all lost — our of place from where we were meant to be because of our sin.
What is sin? Sin could be described as simply living life our own way and not God’s way. Since we’re actually born into this world disconnected from God because of sin being passed down from generation to generation, we can’t know God or understand God on our own. So life doesn’t seem to make sense when it comes to spiritual things.
Isaiah 59 [2] It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.
We all have sinned and fall short of God’s ideal. Romans 3:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
~ CHRIST’S DEATH RESOLVES THE PROBLEM OF SIN.
• We can’t solve the problem of being spiritually disconnected from God on our own. We need to God to intervene and help us.
God wants our lives to make sense. He wants us to live life to its fullest with Him. So God intervened to help us by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to show us God’s love and become the perfect sacrifice for us by dying on the cross to take our sin on Himself. Jesus became our sin-bearer. He bridged the gap between humankind and God.
But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful. Romans 5:8
~ AS WE ASK FORGIVENESS FOR OUR SIN AND CHOOSE TO FOLLOW CHRIST AS THE SAVIOR AND LEADER OF OUR LIVES, WE’RE BORN-AGAIN AND NOW ENTER INTO A NEW LIFE WITH GOD FOREVER.
• Because of what God did for us through Jesus Christ, we can now experience life the way God intended by inviting Jesus Christ alone to be the Savior and Leader of our lives.
Only Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death for us some 2,000 years ago can bridge that gap between us and God. The Bible says that Jesus is drawing everyone to Himself.
Jesus said, ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ John 12:32
But it’s up to us to respond to that drawing by trusting Jesus Christ alone to save us, and give us a new life and purpose. That kind of trust means turning from whatever we are hoping in to bring us peace, happiness and spiritual contentment to trusting in Jesus Christ alone to be the Savior and Leader of our lives. In other words, you’re choosing to follow Jesus forever.
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. John 1:12-13
In summary, God wants us to fully grasp how our own sin has disconnected us from him. He wants us to understand that only Jesus Christ and what he did for us through his sacrificial death can reconnect us to God. As we transfer our trust to Jesus Christ alone as our Savior and Leader of our lives, and follow him, the result is spiritual transformation.
When we invite Christ into our lives, or choose to follow Him, that means that we enter into a personal, eternal relationship with God that starts now – not just in heaven one day. That means that we can live life to the fullest – right now. It doesn’t mean that things will be perfect. It doesn’t mean that you won’t experience suffering. It means that, through God’s Son, Jesus Christ, we can now experience life the way God intended us to experience it in the first place (i.e., having joy, inner peace, contentment and an intimate connection with God – regardless of our circumstances).
And, as a new child of God now, a great place to start is to understand the promise of God that you are eternally secure. You are a child of God forever now and nothing can take that away.
1 John 5 [11] And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [12] Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. [13] I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
This is the gospel – the good news – of Jesus Christ … this is the core of authentic Christianity.
Has it really hit you? As you think about the idea of walking across the room to connect with people who need Christ – is your heart truly broken for those who don’t have that connection wit God yet? Will you ask God to give you his heart for people today?